Melissa Miller

Melissa Miller is the art teacher at Salk Elementary. She has always loved the arts. Her aunt, Carol, worked for Hallmark back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, where she was known for her beautiful watercolors. Roses were her aunt's specialty. Melissa admired her aunt so much that she was inspired to go to college to become an art teacher.

Melissa Miller went to school at Rogers State University and Northeastern State University where she obtained her degree in art education. Melissa also has certificates for elementary education and early childhood education. Looking back, she remembers how hard she worked to raise her family, send her daughter off to the University of Oklahoma, watch her young son go to first grade and attend college full time. Don't ever let anyone tell you that you don't have to work at being a successful student, mom, and partner to a wonderful husband. But she will tell you it was all worth it to have the career she set out to have.

Mrs. Miller's first job teaching art was in Owasso, Oklahoma at the 6th Grade Center where she taught for four years. After taking a couple years off, Mrs. Miller substituted at various schools around the area and was eventually hired as a 4th grade teacher at Newcomer International. Mrs. Miller missed teaching art and when a job opened up at a new school -- Jones Elementary -- she jumped at the chance to teach art once again.

Mrs. Miller worked at Jones Elementary for ten years where she taught art, PE, music, reading, and English, served as an ELD, and a gifted and talented teacher throughout the years. Art was in her heart, though, so she applied for a full-time teaching position at Salk Elementary and lo and behold -- she was hired! 

The philosophy that Mrs. Miller uses is that all children can learn to draw. She believes that anything we set our minds to do, we can do. Mrs. Miller loves seeing the spark in a child's eyes when they realize that yes, they can draw.

"Art is the visual evidence of the way man lives" was a quote one of her college professors used all the time, and Mrs. Miller couldn't agree more. She loves showing her students a variety of artists and the art that made a lot of them famous. When she sees her students achieving certain goals it makes her heart full.